In order to improve the quality of systematic researches, various tools have been developed by well-known scientific institutes sporadically. Dr. Nader Ale Ebrahim has collected these sporadic tools under one roof in a collection named “Research Tool Box”. The toolbox contains over 720 tools so far, classified in 4 main categories: Literature-review, Writing a paper, Targeting suitable journals, as well as Enhancing visibility and impact factor.

How to get your research noticed online | Social Media QUB

How to get your research noticed online

Academic conversations are increasingly taking place online, so how
can you make sure that your research features positively in them?

According to Altmetric, a research output is mentioned online every 1.8 seconds,
so if you don’t want to perish as a researcher, you need to think about
how you are going to promote what you publish. Having a strong
social presence and making your research information accessible and
shareable are key strategies for ensuring that your work gets noticed
and disseminated online. But it doesn’t stop there! You need to
continue to track how your research is shared and by whom and nurture
this valuable network if you are to firmly establish yourself as a
expert in your area. Follow this practical advice to make the most of
social media and altmetrics to identify yourself as the creator of
your research outputs and maximise their reach within academic
circles and beyond.

Establish a strong online profile

In order to partake in online knowledge exchange, you need to be present on the key social networks. The role of Twitter within
academia is now firmly established, so if you haven’t entered the
Twittersphere yet, you should seriously consider it. Tweeting is an
efficient way of sharing links to articles and driving traffic to
websites or blogs, and is becoming common practice at conferences and
events. Other sites for you to contemplate include Mendeley, ResearchGate and Academia,
all well-established social networks for researchers. If you want to
forge relationships with industry professionals, take a look at LinkedIn, which is steadily raising its profile in Higher Education too.

If you already have publications, take ownership of your profile on Google Scholar and
make it public so that it will appear in search results. Even if
you have a presence on your institution’s website, it is
worth establishing your own personal webpage or blog which you can use
as a hub for your different profiles. Or you might want to consider
using ImpactStory ($60 per year), an altmetrics-focused
repository where you can upload various products of research and
integrate your online identities. However, while it is important to be
visible online, be careful not to spread yourself too thin and end up
with “profile fatigue”!

Whichever sites you sign up to, aim for consistency in your choice of
username and profile image across your online profiles to avoid any
confusion. Make sure that you claim your Open Researcher and
Contributor ID (ORCiD) which is a
persistent identifier that will distinguish you from other researchers
and ensure that your work is attributed correctly to you. You can also
use your ORCiD profile like an online CV by adding professional
information and linking it to your other profiles. Don’t forget
to include your Twitter handle and a link to your main online
profile wherever you can, including your email signature.

Make your research accessible

A key strategy for boosting the impact of your research is to make it
as accessible as possible. One of the simplest ways to do this is to
publish in open access (OA) journals as
you are allowing your work to be immediately available online without
any financial barriers. You can widen your audience further by
converting research outputs into a format suitable for non-academic
audiences, for example, by reproducing a paper as a blog article. Blogging is also an excellent way of generating early interest in your research without having to wait for a publication to be accepted.

As well as papers, you can make other products of your research available online – consider uploading datasets to DataHub or publishing code on GitHub. Adding slides to SlideShare or publishing video content on YouTube will
increase your online visibility and allow you to disseminate your
findings in a comprehendible format. To reduce the burden of managing
your various outputs, use a repository like Figshare to
host all your work in a central location and make it easy for others to
discover, share and cite. Connected Researchers have a
comprehensive list of digital tools if you are looking for something specific to develop or manage your research outputs.

Create shareable content

Social media posts that contain videos or images are much more likely
to get shared, so start thinking about how you can present your
findings in an engaging way. Add captions to photographs, or use tools
like PiktoChart and Venngage to quickly create eye-catching infographics. If you need something more sophisticated, there are a wide range of data visualisation
tools available that you can use to present data in an innovative
manner. Or you could give your research a personal touch by producing a
video of your ‘elevator pitch’ or by creating an animation explaining
your conceptual framework. Try Office Mix for a simple way to produce interactive online videos using PowerPoint.

Storytelling is an excellent way to add shape and meaning to your
data and help convey the potential impact of your findings. Start by
answering a question like: “Why does this research matter?“,
then capture your audience’s attention with a diagram, photo album or
infographic. Reveal a startling fact, connect your audience with a
specific emotion that will motivate them to take an action, or take them
on a narrative journey using imagery or video content. Telling the
story of your research will captivate your audience in a way that blunt
facts and figures cannot, encouraging them to respond and share your
content with their networks.

Track your reach

Once you’ve got people interested in your research, it is important
to keep track of who is engaging with your content and how they are
reacting to it. ImpactStory can identify mentions of your work on a range of social networks and Google Scholar will uncover any citations of your articles. The Altmetric Bookmarklet allows
you to view article-level metrics for publications and you can set up
email alerts to receive updates if articles you are interested in are
mentioned online. You can also create Google Alerts to monitor the Web for references to your work or create searches in TweetDeck to identify relevant Tweets.

While the relevance of altmetrics to research impact is still being
debated, they can provide important insights into how your research has
been received and who it resonates with. As Roberta Kwok pointed out, “Altmetrics enable scientists to see ripples generated by their research that might otherwise go unnoticed.”
Find out what altmetrics are available for your publications and use
them to identify which channels your work is being disseminated over and
to highlight influencers that you hadn’t previously considered.
Take some time to uncover and understand your audience so that you can
tailor future content to align closer to their needs.

Nurture your network

The best way to grow your online network is to engage with
individuals from within and beyond academia. Joining relevant groups on
Mendeley, Facebook or LinkedIn, or participating in Twitter chats can
help to get you and your work noticed. Start a conversation with your
network by asking a question or reach out to someone who has shared your
work or whose work you admire. Make sure you respond promptly to any
questions or comments and thank anyone who posts positive reviews about
content you have shared.

Using social media for knowledge exchange and to maintain
relationships with key stakeholders could potentially enhance the impact
of your research and will boost your online profile. Becoming a
networked researcher will involve some effort but it will afford you the
unparalleled opportunity to promote your research, gain valuable
feedback and interact with diverse audiences. As competition for
academic positions and funding intensifies, you can’t afford to be a
digital wallflower!

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About Me

Nader Ale Ebrahim has
a Technology Management PhD degree from the Department of Engineering
Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya
(UM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He holds a Master of Science in the
mechanical engineering from University of Tehran, Iran.